Rigor Question: Will top50 colleges hold it against my DD that she never took an AP math class (calc at reg level)?

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the good faith commenters. I don't mind direct feedback.

My DD is at a competitive pubic HS. I assume her CCO won't check the "most rigorous" box as her peer group all takes more APs in STEM.

DD is genuine undecided for her major. Her favorite subject is English but she doesn't think that will be a productive major. Math is her kryptonite but she's worked hard with a tutor to keep up with the non-AP level curriculum and will complete calculus next year. But she excels at writing and analyzing.

She is hard-working. 2 varsity sports all 4 years plus the newspaper for 3 years. All 5's on AP tests including Spanish and humanities.


Your daughter sounds a lot like mine - very talented in the humanities, not so in math. And her language is French, through AP, as well as all APs in other subjects. She didn't take calculus at all - opted for Stats (non-AP). She was admitted into four T50 schools. Don't let the fearmongers intimidate you. The key is what she plans to major in.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the good faith commenters. I don't mind direct feedback.

My DD is at a competitive pubic HS. I assume her CCO won't check the "most rigorous" box as her peer group all takes more APs in STEM.

DD is genuine undecided for her major. Her favorite subject is English but she doesn't think that will be a productive major. Math is her kryptonite but she's worked hard with a tutor to keep up with the non-AP level curriculum and will complete calculus next year. But she excels at writing and analyzing.

She is hard-working. 2 varsity sports all 4 years plus the newspaper for 3 years. All 5's on AP tests including Spanish and humanities.


Your daughter sounds a lot like mine - very talented in the humanities, not so in math. And her language is French, through AP, as well as all APs in other subjects. She didn't take calculus at all - opted for Stats (non-AP). She was admitted into four T50 schools. Don't let the fearmongers intimidate you. The key is what she plans to major in.


Thank you and congrats to your DD! Do you mind sharing which 4 schools admitted her or which school she ultimately chose? Our girls sound similar and we're working to solidify DC's list over the next few months.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the good faith commenters. I don't mind direct feedback.

My DD is at a competitive pubic HS. I assume her CCO won't check the "most rigorous" box as her peer group all takes more APs in STEM.

DD is genuine undecided for her major. Her favorite subject is English but she doesn't think that will be a productive major. Math is her kryptonite but she's worked hard with a tutor to keep up with the non-AP level curriculum and will complete calculus next year. But she excels at writing and analyzing.

She is hard-working. 2 varsity sports all 4 years plus the newspaper for 3 years. All 5's on AP tests including Spanish and humanities.


Your daughter sounds a lot like mine - very talented in the humanities, not so in math. And her language is French, through AP, as well as all APs in other subjects. She didn't take calculus at all - opted for Stats (non-AP). She was admitted into four T50 schools. Don't let the fearmongers intimidate you. The key is what she plans to major in.


Thank you and congrats to your DD! Do you mind sharing which 4 schools admitted her or which school she ultimately chose? Our girls sound similar and we're working to solidify DC's list over the next few months.


I’d like to know which four T50 schools too.
Anonymous
I would say it depends on your high school college placement history and your kid's overall application. My kid went to a well regarded, non dmv private school with honors level classes but no ap courses. He took honors in other disciplines (science, foreign language, history, etc) but took regular non honors/nonAP calculus and math for 4 years (got A's but not higest level/rigor). Essays focused on academic areas of strength and ECs were very strong. Heading to an ivy and also accepted to many other strong schools. Dream big but have a strong balanced list. Apply ED if kid has a clear favorite. that is affordable.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the good faith commenters. I don't mind direct feedback.

My DD is at a competitive pubic HS. I assume her CCO won't check the "most rigorous" box as her peer group all takes more APs in STEM.

DD is genuine undecided for her major. Her favorite subject is English but she doesn't think that will be a productive major. Math is her kryptonite but she's worked hard with a tutor to keep up with the non-AP level curriculum and will complete calculus next year. But she excels at writing and analyzing.

She is hard-working. 2 varsity sports all 4 years plus the newspaper for 3 years. All 5's on AP tests including Spanish and humanities.


Your daughter sounds a lot like mine - very talented in the humanities, not so in math. And her language is French, through AP, as well as all APs in other subjects. She didn't take calculus at all - opted for Stats (non-AP). She was admitted into four T50 schools. Don't let the fearmongers intimidate you. The key is what she plans to major in.


Thank you and congrats to your DD! Do you mind sharing which 4 schools admitted her or which school she ultimately chose? Our girls sound similar and we're working to solidify DC's list over the next few months.


I’d like to know which four T50 schools too.


I’m not the PP, but if you look at the list of Top 50 universities it includes schools like UMD, Ohio State, Rutgers, Illinois etc - schools that are competitive, but not insanely so - especially for humanities students.
Anonymous
I’m not the PP either but my kid is not a math fan. Submitted ACT - 32 superscore - math sub score brought perfect English/reading scores down. Submitted everywhere. HS had very few AP options (calc AB, physics 1, chem, APES, computer science). Kid took AP physics junior year and APES senior year. Flat out refused to take calculus despite doing well in precalc and took regular statistics instead. Precalc teacher wrote a recommendation. IR/language major.

I am posting bc the lack of calculus concerned me greatly based on everything I read and it turned out okay. Accepted Emory, Tufts, Wisconsin, Georgia, Ohio State.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:50 is a random nubmer, ther is not difference between 40 and 80.


But yet half the threads in this forum find a significant difference between 29 and 30.

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I’m not the PP either but my kid is not a math fan. Submitted ACT - 32 superscore - math sub score brought perfect English/reading scores down. Submitted everywhere. HS had very few AP options (calc AB, physics 1, chem, APES, computer science). Kid took AP physics junior year and APES senior year. Flat out refused to take calculus despite doing well in precalc and took regular statistics instead. Precalc teacher wrote a recommendation. IR/language major.

I am posting bc the lack of calculus concerned me greatly based on everything I read and it turned out okay. Accepted Emory, Tufts, Wisconsin, Georgia, Ohio State.


great results - congrats to your student!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:DD will be a humanities or social science major. Currently undecided.

She is at a rigorous public school outside DMV. (We are ex-DMV so I am still on this site a lot hehe!)
DD's unweighted GPA is 3.9. She has lots of strong ECs and great recommendations (humanities, not STEM).

She's taken 8 APs
4 in social studies (history, econ, psychology)
2 in english
1 in science (APES)
1 in language
0 math (but she did take precalc and signed up for calc AB, just not AP level)

Will her low STEM APs and no Math AP hurt her?



your daughter sounds great but I do spot that she's taking the 2 easiest APs in her course mix - AP Psych and APES - so that might be a flag for some AOs! and ofc no AP math but why not AP stats if interestd in soc sci?
Anonymous
Some will care and some will not care. Have to look into each admissions office.
Anonymous
Shouldn't matter if your DD is doing an arts program like Tisch or acting at CMU.

But if they're headed to a strong top 50-ish school with some core distribution requirements outside of humanities, the lack of any AP math and only APES science might be a red flag.

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